U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,742 of 04 Jan. 1977 entitled "Circuit Breaker Having Improved Operating Mechanism" describes a circuit breaker capable of interrupting several thousand amperes of circuit current at several hundred volts potential. As described therein, the operating mechanism controls the powerful operating springs that open and close the circuit breaker contacts. Once the operating mechanism has responded to separate the contacts, the operating springs must be recharged to supply sufficient motive force to the movable contact arms that carry the contacts.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/214,522 of 3 Mar. 1994 entitled "Handle Operator Assembly for High Ampere-rated Circuit Breaker" describes an assembly for manually charging the circuit breaker contact closing springs. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/218,287 of 28 Mar. 1994 entitled "Latching Arrangement for High Ampere-rated Circuit Breaker" describes the latching arrangement used to retain the powerful operating mechanism springs from driving the circuit breaker contacts to the open position.
The interlock arrangement for interlocking the circuit breaker closing springs used within the circuit breakers described within the aforementioned U.S. Patent Applications is disclosed within U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/266,409 of 6 Jun. 1994 entitled "Sequential Closing Interlock Arrangement for High Ampere-rated Circuit Breakers". U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/203,062 of 28 Feb. 1994 entitled "Rating Module for High Ampere-Rated Circuit Breaker" describes the use separate pairs of operating springs for opening and closing the circuit breaker contacts.
Indication of the condition of the circuit breaker contact closing springs is made by means of a charge indicating flag arranged on the top surface of the circuit breaker cover.
One purpose of this invention is to provide a means for latching the circuit breaker charge indicating flag with the closing springs charging assembly whereby the charge indicating flag is held from indicating that the closing springs are fully charged unless and until the closing springs charging cycle is completed.